To Die For
by BlackBandit111
Summary: There isn't a lot Walter O'Brien's willing to die for, Cabe knows. But his team is one of them. Oneshot, insight to Cabe's thoughts. No slash.


_Hello fellow Scorpions of our fandom! This is sort of a oneshot about Cabe's thoughts and ideas about Walter and a look into his perspective, so it was sort of interesting to write. Anyways I hope you enjoy!_

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><p>Over the years of watching the young genius grown from a boy into a young man, Cabe knows a few things about him. Years of working with him and being impressed by him and generally awe-struck by someone so much younger than he took its toll, and he found himself inescapably getting to know the young man. He knew there wasn't a lot that he'd die for, too caught up in himself, but his IQ was one of them.<p>

When he was sixteen, he was a smartass little shit of a brat who condescended his superiors and didn't know how to take social ques. By the time he'd realized you were angry, he was already mostly screwed. For a genius it was quite a feat not to know when to stop talking when you were pissing someone off.

So when Cabe had met Walter- well, it was before he'd turned sixteen truth be told, when he was eleven- he was both incredibly aggravated and extremely impressed. An eleven year old managed to hack into one of the highest security systems of the country, just because he'd wanted NASA blueprints for his bedroom wall?

But even by that time, Walter had learned to shy away from those who went to lay a hand on him, both for comfort and harm, and something in Cabe's chest cracked a little at the idea that the poor boy had to go about his day watching for blows that may come his way. In that moment he'd decided that, should he and Walter O'Brien's paths cross again, he'd watch out for him.

And when he'd been sixteen he'd been quite the rebel, cursing at his father, those who didn't understand him nor his intellect, and those who tried to be better than him, bigger than him, because who were they to talk down to someone as smart as he? And he'd spit fire and ice and hurl every fault he could find about you right back into your face just because he could, and Cabe had found his own fingers twitching on occasion as he imagined shaking the boy until he finally fell from his high horse.

But he'd also realized through that desire that Walter was de-activating instead of reacting, putting what he'd learned through his entire childhood to use. The idea that if he'd shut you down first, you didn't get the chance to shut him down.

And there was another crack in Cabe's armor.

There had been a few years that they'd worked together in between- Cabe had always kept up with the kid, just to see how things were going- and discovered that a bored O'Brien was a nasty one, so he'd send puzzles and riddles and codes that his department had trouble with Walter's way, and that kept the both of them equally sated. And if he'd started to grow fond, who was anyone to say anything about it?

As time went by, Cabe began to notice certain changes in their relationship- O'Brien leaning a little bit on him when he'd needed it, both phyiscially and metaphorically, and Cabe establishing more ground rules and hell, even teaching the dumb little shit a proper right hook when he'd come to the older man after being nearly beaten to death in an alley.

"Teach me to hit properly," Walter had demanded. "Just in case."

And Cabe didn't realize these little things he did were fatherly until he was slammed with a memory of his daughter saying almost the exact same thing.

"Teach me to hit someone," she'd pleaded. "Just in case, Dad. Millie was hit earlier today by another girl and I don't want that to happen to me."

This is why when the order had rolled around for proper, effective software, Cabe had volunteered Walter on the spot. It seemed like something to keep the young man busy and out of trouble, and if it got the thing done, who was going to protest?

It wasn't until five minutes after he'd recruited O'Brien he was told that it was weaponry software and not delivery, and he had been seconds from re-dialing before he was told to keep it a secret. "Your job is at stake," his boss had reminded, and Cabe had selfishly put down the phone.

And there wasn't a lot Walter O'Brien would die for, but Cabe had a feeling that his approval was one of them.

He regretted it everyday since, Walter's red eyes and angry snarl permanently inked into his mind when he'd shrieked in something Cabe could only describe as agony: "_I've killed people! People are dead because of me all because you lied!"_

And he'd been thrown from the young genius's life, told not to call nor to track him down nor give him anymore codes or cases, and that was the end of that.

The burden of shoving away the young sixteen year old's innocence remained with Cabe for years, haunting him, taunting him, a constant feeling of guilt in his chest.

And then there was Scorpion.

Now, the agent had always kept tabs on his young friend despite the threats Walter had thrown his way, and although it wasn't always easy, Cabe would get word of the genius. He suspected Walter allowed his techies to track his signature or records because Cabe knew that, if Walter was really serious about never seeing him again, he'd manage to delete himself completely from every system known to man.

That was how Cabe knew Walter was safe (and not lying in a ditch somewhere because of his inability to realize when enough was enough), and that had to be enough.

He'd watched as Walter had gone from a gangly teenager into a proud twenty year old man, and even watched as he'd picked up Toby from the literal side of the road. Some of Toby's more disappointed gambler friends had dropped him there for laughs, and Walter had just picked himself out of the metaphorical gutter on his way to his new garage haunt.

He must have seen something in Toby that Cabe, nor anyone else had, because he didn't hesitate to take the beaten man's arm and pull it around his shoulders and help the two of them stumble on home.

Then came Happy, and then Sylvester, both with their relative baggage and issues, and Walter with his own and they made a wonderfully quaint band of misfits together, living wherever they could and dodging taxes and demands from banks for return loans.

It was with hesitance he found himself outside the garage they'd hunkered down in for the next few months. His employers had wanted a better problem-solving program than they already had and Cabe, having kept track of Walter and his wayward companions, offered a solution.

It was hard to see Walter's hard eyes fix on him and know his stony demeanor was directed only at him, but understandable after all that Cabe had done (which probably still cut like a knife, if he was honest, because Walter never did quite know how to shelve emotions and put pasts behind him).

And it was beautiful.

Cabe hadn't known Walter- not really. Made sure the idiot had kept his nose clean, sure, but never truly got to know him as well as he had. To see him interact with those he called friends, to see them look at him and the way he looked back, closer than friends, closer than family, trusting in other people...it was a sight to behold.

And then there was Paige.

Cabe didn't know what it was about Paige that made it so easy for Walter to just open up and let her see what he was, but it was refreshing in a way that Walter never seemed to be before. It was always the same old song that Walter danced to, but Cabe could hear a skipping track, maybe a change of pace in the tune, and it lifted his heart.

And as he watched Walter interact with his team, the way they moved (like they were a machine, in sync, doing their work like they were born to be together, like they were always meant to have met) he was stricken when he realized that he was looking directly at Walter O'Brien's heart.

And there wasn't a lot that Walter O'Brien would die for, but his team was one of them.

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><p><em>So yeah, that's my first time posting in the Scorpion fandom. How'd I do? Did I capture Cabe well? No? Yes? What did you think of Toby's backstory? I'm probably going to write a oneshot based off of it, so :) Thanks for reading, please leave me a comment on your thoughts and I hope you enjoyed!<em>


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